Louisville’s Police Department fires one of the three officers involved in Breonna Taylor’s death

Louisville’s police department is initiating termination of Officer Brett Hankison, one of three LMPD officers involved in the March shooting of Breonna Taylor.

Hankison was one of three officers put on administrative leave for the death of Taylor, a 26-year-old African-American emergency medical technician, who was shot dead on March 13, 2020.

The three officers were executing a no-knock search warrant when they entered Taylor’s apartment in Louisville, Kentucky. Gunfire was exchanged between Taylor’s boyfriend Kenneth Walker and the officers. 

Kenneth believed the officers to be intruders, his attorney has said. He’s a licensed gun owner and fired his weapon, hitting an officer in the leg.

In return, the officers fired over twenty shots and Breonna Taylor was hit 8 times. She died in her hallway.

The Louisville’s police department has now accused Officer Hankison of “blindly” firing 10 rounds into Taylor’s apartment. 

“I find your conduct a shock to the conscience,” the department’s interim chief, Robert Schroeder wrote in a Friday letter to Hankison laying out the charges against him. “I am alarmed and stunned you used deadly force in this fashion.” 

“The result of your action seriously impedes the Department’s goal of providing the citizens of our city with the most professional law enforcement agency possible. I cannot tolerate this type of conduct by any member of the Louisville Metro Police Department,” he added. “Your conduct demands your termination.”

This comes days after Beyoncé wrote an open letter to Attorney General Daniel Cameron to demand ‘swift’ justice for Breonna Taylor

In a letter posted on the singer’s official website on June 14, she urged the Attorney General to “commit to transparency in the investigation and prosecution of these officers’ criminal conduct” and investigate the police department’s response to Taylor’s murder.

The other two officers involved in the case, Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly and Officer Myles Cosgrove remain on administrative reassignment.